President rejects proposal to end talks on a federal Cyprus

President rejects proposal to end talks on a federal Cyprus

President Mustafa Akıncı has said that he should have been consulted on the latest proposal submitted to the Office of the TRNC Legislative Assembly adopt a resolution on the Cyprus talks. The proposal, sent by 19 MPs, is to declare that a federal solution is no longer a viable model of settlement for the Cyprus problem.

Stating that the Cyprus negotiations were being conducted by the Presidency, Akıncı said “it is not appropriate to try to pass such a radical proposal to parliament without consulting with the presidency however nobody asked our opinion regarding this issue.”

“Of course the MPs can present motions, however the Cyprus issue had always been led by the Presidency. This was the same during the term of late President Denktaş and all decisions, motions and proposals to be passed by parliament had been decided with consultations”, the President said.

The President said that he conducted the Cyprus negotiations by authorisation of the people. He also carried out his work from this perspective, adding that he acted according to the 11 February 2014 Joint Agreement.

Reminding that the door to federation remained open in the declaration of independence of the TRNC in 1983, he said “it is not easy to abolish such an issue by taking a decision at the parliament with a few vote differences. Such approaches did not serve for the future of Cyprus.”

Noting that the Greek Cypriot House of Representatives’ decision aimed at the annulment of the Treaty of Guarantees did not also serve for the future of Cyprus, the President said “it is not a positive development to undertake such a decision while they had to abolish the decision taken in 1967 for Enosis. If our parliament takes such a decision now, then this also will not be a good development.”

“The decision taken by the Greek Cypriots regarding the guarantee system does not comply with the realities. The concept of zero troops, zero guarantee does not comply with the realities”, Akıncı said.

Stressing that the process ahead was important, the President said “we will continue to conduct the Cyprus issue together with the political parties in parliament, wiith civil society organisations, the people and Turkey. If there is a need, we can ask our people what they want in a referendum. However all these depend on the developments and the conditions. We are in a process where we should remain calm and act without haste.”